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September 6, 2012

Filthy Review - 'Munger Road'

Munger Road (2011)

Review by Jude Felton

Every town, it would seem, has a Munger Road. You know
the road, it’s the one that’s a bit off the beaten track, is spooky as hell and
is haunted, and kids tell tales of the grisly events that no doubt happened
there. In the case of Munger Road it is the ghosts of the victims of an
accident where a train hit a stalled bus. Of course, when there are such urban
legends kids want to investigate them. Such is part of the premise of this
film.

Munger Road is broken into two distinct plot strands,
which do converge eventually. The first follows two couples as they head down
Munger Road to investigate, and hopefully document on film, the legend that
surrounds this road. The other story concerns police searching for an escaped
killer that could be heading to town, just in time for the annual Scarecrow
Festival.

This really was a strange film to watch, for several
reasons. The parts with the kids is pretty well done, there is an element of
fear surrounding the events in their car and director Nicolas Smith does a good
job of not revealing too much too soon. Sure, the plot has been done before,
and the characters came across as a little annoying, but there were some decent
elements about it. The use of their camera being employed for some found
footage style work was used effectively, but sparingly, especially in one
particular scene.

On the flipside of this, the story concerning the two
cops, yes just two, searching for the escaped murderer seemed to amble along
with no real urgency. Apparently the city’s police budget didn’t allow for a
full scale manhunt, even though it is made clear that they want him caught
before the festival starts.

As I mentioned, the two stories do eventually converge,
and this is probably my biggest gripe with the film. To say that the final 10
minutes or so are frustrating would be a mild understatement. Too much faith in
put in the viewers’ interest level in the story, and as such I can see this
being a point of frustration for many viewers.

Overall, Munger Road did have its enjoyable moments, and
a few creepy ones. The violence is pretty much kept off screen; although we are
left in no doubt that it does occur. Where the film could have been
dramatically improved would be in the script department. There were some good
ideas that weren’t fleshed out enough, and the film came across as disjointed
and ultimately unfulfilling.